Conditioning: Running “The Ladder”
Sunday, 05 August 2007
Let’s all face it; running sprints are a necessity when it comes to playing soccer. But as long we understand the actual purpose behind it, conditioning can be viewed in an entirely different light. First and foremost, conditioning should never be used as a punishment tool; as a Strength Coach I want you to enjoy my conditioning drills and not always associate punishment when it comes to my training. Here is a quick explanation behind the conditioning done, as well as a running drill called “The Ladder”.
For those athletes that are fairly conditioned and pay attention during conditioning drills, you’ll see that there is a stop watch not only running while you’re doing your drills, but also while you’re resting. The resting period is timed for a purpose not just to see how tired your Strength Coach can make you, but it is actually to teach your lungs to be more efficient with the oxygen being used. When you are doing your sprints, your lungs are contracting hard to force oxygen through the body since it is working much harder than normal. After your sprint and you rest period starts, your lungs begin to expand and relax to allow a greater amount of oxygen to aid in the recovery period.
The method behind timing your rest intervals is make your body get used to certain amounts of time to recover and prepare for the next sprint. As this process continues, your lunges will be able to recover quicker during your rest intervals as well as not contract as hard during the sprint itself, thus making you “conditioned”. A big physiological change your body goes through as a result of conditioning is to have a higher resting heart rate, and a lower active heart rate. What this means is that when your body is put under stress, such as sprinting, it is able to elevate to compensate for the work required, but does not go through the roof causing injury or failure. Also, your resting heart rate becomes higher as a result of being conditioned and can deal with everyday stresses such as work.
As you’ll see in the program below, called the Ladder, I have laid out the work to rest ratios as such; 1:6. This means that for however long it takes you to complete the drill (1), you get six (6) times that to recover. Example: 30 yards took you 3 seconds to complete, you get to rest 3 seconds x 6 = 18 seconds.
Sets Distance Work: Rest Interval
2 10 yards 1:3
2 20 yards 1:3
2 30 yards 1:3
2 40 yards 1:3
2 50 yards 1:4
2 60 yards 1:4
2 50 yards 1:4
2 40 yards 1:4
2 30 yards 1:3
2 20 yards 1:3
2 10 yards 1:3
For those athletes that are fairly conditioned and pay attention during conditioning drills, you’ll see that there is a stop watch not only running while you’re doing your drills, but also while you’re resting. The resting period is timed for a purpose not just to see how tired your Strength Coach can make you, but it is actually to teach your lungs to be more efficient with the oxygen being used. When you are doing your sprints, your lungs are contracting hard to force oxygen through the body since it is working much harder than normal. After your sprint and you rest period starts, your lungs begin to expand and relax to allow a greater amount of oxygen to aid in the recovery period.
The method behind timing your rest intervals is make your body get used to certain amounts of time to recover and prepare for the next sprint. As this process continues, your lunges will be able to recover quicker during your rest intervals as well as not contract as hard during the sprint itself, thus making you “conditioned”. A big physiological change your body goes through as a result of conditioning is to have a higher resting heart rate, and a lower active heart rate. What this means is that when your body is put under stress, such as sprinting, it is able to elevate to compensate for the work required, but does not go through the roof causing injury or failure. Also, your resting heart rate becomes higher as a result of being conditioned and can deal with everyday stresses such as work.
As you’ll see in the program below, called the Ladder, I have laid out the work to rest ratios as such; 1:6. This means that for however long it takes you to complete the drill (1), you get six (6) times that to recover. Example: 30 yards took you 3 seconds to complete, you get to rest 3 seconds x 6 = 18 seconds.
Sets Distance Work: Rest Interval
2 10 yards 1:3
2 20 yards 1:3
2 30 yards 1:3
2 40 yards 1:3
2 50 yards 1:4
2 60 yards 1:4
2 50 yards 1:4
2 40 yards 1:4
2 30 yards 1:3
2 20 yards 1:3
2 10 yards 1:3
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